Croatia

Articles: Croatia

NATO Deputy Secretary General, Amb. Alexander Vershbow (in the office since February 2012), in November 2014 visited Split as one of the senior speakers at the NATO-Industry Forum. The Forum organised annually, hosted by different NATO nation and serves as an optimal opportunity to discuss the burning strategic issues. We took the opportunity offered this year to interview the NATO Deputy Secretary General on the principal challenges faced by the Alliance, the future warfare and development.

Late July 2014 saw the final evaluatoion of the first Croatian Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment – AVPD, which is to be deployed to EU NAVFOR SOMALIA – OPERATION ATALANTA by the end of the year. The responsible unit is the Croatian Navy, whose members have successfully participated in the operation at officer posts in the ATALANTA Headquarters in Northwood and aboard the ships deployed in the area. The first Croatian AVPD team will be composed of ten members, commanded by Lieutenant (N) Nenad Kontri.

The 23rd HRVCON to ISAF comprises some twenty soldiers assigned to a number of posts in Kabul, among whom the Croatian representatives to the International Joint Command (IJC), located at the KAIA. The IJC monitors all activities in ISAF and controls all troops movements and activities in the field. During our visit to the Croatian soldiers in the IJC, we took the opportunity to talk to Major General Antonio Satta, Deputy IJC Commander, an officer from the Italian Armed Forces, with an extensive experience from the international missions and operations (served in Lebanon, Somalia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan).

In early April Croatia marked its first five years of NATO membership. As a unique opportunity to additionally mark the anniversary we conducted an interview with General Knud Bartels, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, discussing Croatia's participation in NATO-led operations and contribution to Smart Defence initiative respectively. General Bartels also spoke about new challenges before the Alliance in the future.

Within five years only Croatia has made an amazing progress. It refers to the way it adopted NATO standards, tactics, techniques and procedures. Today Croatia teaches other nations how to adopt them, and co-operates in Afghanistan very successfully with other NATO members. It really makes me happy...

The endeavour and the determination demonstrated by the Republic of Croatia towards assuming its portion of responsibility and contributing to collective security have been recognised and rewarded by approving full NATO membership to the country, among the powerful and developed democracies and their Armed Forces, sharing their values and objectives. NATO membership was one of the two foreign policy priorities outlined upon the very establishment of Croatia as independent country.

Much like all military units that proudly mark their anniversaries reminding them of difficult yet historical moments of their establishment, so did the Croatian military magazine „Hrvatski vojnik“ in mid-November. We too are commemorating our anniversary in a happy atmosphere for having had the privilege of being close the Croatian soldiers and of following them in their war- and peace-time duties alike. The pages of „Hrvatski vojnik“ reflect all minor and major Croatian victories alike, crowned by the final liberation of our country. Following the war, we continued to cover every step of the peace-time development of the Croatian Armed Forces, to record the most important moments of their growth intoa modern and professional military force, and to follow Croatian soldiers in peace missions in remote areas of the world. We have been with Croatian soldiers ever since our first issue and it has remained so to this day. Croatian soldiers remain our continuous inspiration and undepletable source of subjects.

At a ceremony at Camp Jullien in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday, 31 August 2012, the Commander of the 19th HRVCON Colonel Tomislav Galić handed out medals to members of the 4th NATO military police training advisory team (MP TAT) at the ANA School of Military Police.

Today when we celebrate the anniversary of the Croatian Armed Forces, we need to emphasize the quality of CAF, which has been confirmed not only in the Homeland War but also in the UN and NATO missions, as well as in activities carried out in the country to help civilian population - the President of the Republic of Croatia and Commander-in-Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces Ivo Josipović said on May 27, after he visited the weapons and equipment display of the Armed Forces and Police, upon the marking the 21st anniversary of the Croatian Armed Forces, Armed Forces Day and the Day of the Croatian Army in recreation and sport centre Jarun.

On Monday, January 24 Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende paid a visit to Croatia at the invitation of Croatian Minister of Defence Davor Bozinovic and held talks with his counterpart in Osijek at a border meeting in the afternoon hours.